


Mama Lou's New Beginning

by silamai



Category: Final Fantasy XIV, World of Warcraft
Genre: Dimension Travel, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3163904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silamai/pseuds/silamai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Krystanth Lou's past as a more-than-shady business proprietor catches up to her as she finds herself on the run from an old mistake in Azeroth.  In her escape attempt a teleportation spell is flubbed and she finds herself in a new world called Eorzea.</p>
<p>Basically how an OC transfers from one game series to another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Out of the Frying Pan...

Krystanth tore through the Undercity, heaving and panting as she struggled to flee in her robes.  Why oh why couldn't mage clothing be _practical_? Sure, the aether could flow through the fabric like it was nobody's business but try to flee a pursuer who went through your personal meat shield and a water elemental and what good was the dress?  Her mana supplies were ludicrously dry; the last of was it used on a blast of energy that was meant to topple a Tauren paladin chasing after her but instead missed and tore an unsuspecting Undead monk into pieces.  Now the shouting cow, both halves of the monk, and the monk's posse were all fast on her trail, and she was running out of places to hide.

The bull bellowed from behind her, giving her legs a second wind.  "Halt!" he shouted.  She felt something emerge from the air above her and ducked to the right as a hammer of light dropped from the sky directly in her original path.  The impact of the hammer with the stone floor vibrated under her feet.  Chills ran down her spine.  She cursed the gods and swerved herself on a new path through the shops.  Taking advantage of her petite stature, she leapt into the air, curling into a ball and rolling underneath one of the merchant carts, hoping that her sudden disappearance would make her pursuers lose her trail.  The space was tight; she felt the weight of the cart pressing down on her small frame.  Her impact with the floor raised a dust cloud, or more accurately, a bone dust cloud.  She heard the clinking of jostled alchemy flasks above her as she crawled on hands and knees towards the other side of the cart.  She froze, waiting for an angry merchant to pull her out from underneath the cart and hand her over to the tauren, whoever he was.

Why was this happening now?  She knew—or at least was quite sure—this tauren was from her past, but she was damned if she knew what exactly had happened to cause such a reaction.   As far as she was aware, he was only an insane ex-customer.  Or perhaps an insane ex-commodity?  Not that she had done that in a long time.  Peddling strangers, although lucrative and hilarious, got her into more trouble than it was worth.  One time she traded a blood elf for a bag of sugar, and for years afterwards could not enter the capital without someone trying to cut something off, usually her head.

Moments passed with no upset.  She assumed the vendor had not noticed her using his cart as a hiding place, and since she wasn't being gored by tauren horns she assumed her paladin pursuer had fallen for her tactic.  Her mana, though nowhere near peak levels, was enough that she could fend for herself.  It was time to go find a bat and get out of this hellhole.  Her head emerged on the other side of the cart, and she took a deep breath of air—not fresh considering she was in the undead capital but definitely not stagnant either.  This was her lucky break; there was a line of these carts down the alley; as long as she kept them between her and her pursuers—

Her relief was short-lived as the pressure of the cart was suddenly removed from her back.  She twisted around to see the Tauren hurl the cart through the air behind him before it plunged into the neon aqueduct surrounding the area.  The bovine figure loomed over her, paralysing her with his glare.

A shroud of cloth suddenly broke their gaze as a skeletal figure stepped between them.  "My _remedies_!" the cart vendor shouted, nearly stepping on her.  He clearly still had not detected her presence.  "What in the name of the ancients are you doing?"

The outburst broke Krystanth out of her trance, and she fumbled to stand.  Her robes had tangled around her feet, a bit of delicate embroidery at the hems having caught in her shoes.  She lashed out with her legs, ripping the hem clean off before she tried to stand.  Her hand went for her waist, looking for her dagger.  She grasped only soft material.  She gasped, scanning the ground.  The dagger lay a few feet away.  She lunged for it.

"Out of my way!" the tauren shouted.  With that the vendor was soaring through the air to join the cart.  A coarse, furry hand reached out and grabbed Krystanth by her hair buns.  Pain shot through her scalp as he lifted her into the air and spun her around to face him.  She squirmed, trying to detach herself from his grasp without ripping out her hair.  She had paid too much money at the barber for this 'do for a mad cow to ruin it in a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.  The tauren grinned, teeth glinting in the flickering light.  Her stomach dropped.

"You've avoided me for too long, missy," he growled.  A crowd was gathering around the two; the monk was behind the hulking cow being reassembled by his companions.  "I've been looking for months, trying to find a trace of you.  _Months_.  Not that that was anything compared to what you put me through."

Her left hand grabbed at the thick hairy fingers holding her hair, but they wouldn't budge.  Her right hand lay limp at her side.  "Who are you?  Why have you been trying to find me?" she squeaked.

The sinister smirk disappeared, the tauren's demeanor sinking from angry to outright fury.  "Who _am_ I?" he shouted.  "I asked you for simple directions, and then you shipped me off with a passing caravan, only for me to find out that you had _sold me_ to them in exchange for a _hamburger_ without my knowledge and you can't even be bothered to remember my name?"

In all honesty, Krystanth couldn't remember this happening.  There were a lot of tauren and a lot of hamburgers.

"I ended up being stationed on the front lines killing members of the alliance for no pay whatsoever!  Forced to sleep out in the open with nothing but the fur on my back for warmth and comfort!  And _you can't even remember my name_!"

His grip tightened further on her hair; Krystanth could feel patches of it being ripped from her head.

"I'm going to drag you back to Orgrimmar and have you stand in front of the warchief himself to answer for this!  It would bring me great pleasure to watch the _infamous_ Krystanth be forced to work on the front lines as punishment."

The fingers of her right hand tightened around the steel concealed at her waist.  "That's Mama Lou to you!"

She slashed out with her dagger, slicing at the tough flesh of the Tauren's forearm.  Some blood spurt forth and his grip on her hair immediately lessened, allowing her to wrench herself from his grasp with buns still intact.  The Tauren roared from above her.  "I'll get you, scum!" he bellowed, lunging forward.

She snapped her fingers and disappeared.  The tauren fell forward from the momentum, sliding into a pile of garbage and filth from failed alchemy experiments cast behind the cart.  The crowd gasped in awe at the sight, this part clustering together around the mass of fur on the ground, other parts dispersing as they tried to find the little goblin girl that vanished before their very eyes. 

"Over dere!" a troll shouted, pointing across the glowing sludge that sifted through the canals, where a sputtering goblin pulled herself out of the muck.  She hacked as she started to trace symbols in the air, which started to crackle around her.  "She's teleporting away, mon!"

"No!" the tauren screamed, jumping up and pushing through the crowd, a red mushroom growing from a splash of liquid on the end of his snout.  "I wasted too much time searching for her, I won't let her escape!"

Krystanth felt her energies failing her.  The distraction had given her enough time to pop a potion before diving into the aqueduct but it was only just enough, and her frazzled nerves were interfering with her concentration.  She wanted to scream.  The tauren broke through the crowd and began to charge for her.  She gestured faster, her time running out.  Krystanth knew she had gotten far enough away that she would have time to port out.  He would either have to detour and find a bridge across or take a swim, which given his heavy armour, would be a life or death experience.  She tried to visualise where she was going, but the image wouldn't come.  Thunder Bluff, Orgrimmar, _anywhere but here_.

Out of the corner of her eye the tauren skidded to a halt at the edge of the aqueduct, the crossing problem evidently going through his rage-addled mind.  He glared daggers at her from across the way and snorted before throwing his head back and bellowing in frustration.  Krystanth allowed herself to smile.  Within a few seconds she would be out of here and home free to lay low for a couple days before resuming business.  Now to just fixate her mind on a single point in space, then let the portal work its magic.

Something in the air changed above her; she could feel it in the way the hairs rose up on the back of her neck.  She looked up, the last few finger movements of the teleportation spell finishing themselves.  Across the way the tauren was making gestures of his own.  Another hammer of light, bigger than the last, materialized square above her head.  She shrieked, and in her effort to roll aside, her hands scrambled across the ground, just as the portal began to open.  Krystanth felt her center of gravity shift, and before she knew it, an aetherial chasm was ripping the ground apart at her feet.

The raging tauren was the last thing she heard as she tumbled down the rabbit hole and lost consciousness, the last of her strength giving out as the portal closed shut behind her.


	2. ...Onto the Cat Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile back at the ranch, career-driven Thiya Wandu and not-so-career-driven Sih'la Mai plan a sting operation in Thanalan to secure a position as, not just adventurers, but useful adventurers, until a series of lights in the sky heralds something unusual to come.

The sun set on Thanalan, the walls of Ul'dah creating grand shadows that slithered across the cobblestones of the Sapphire Avenue Exchange where many vendors peddled their wares.  Sih'la Mai and Thiya Wandu leaned against the wall that surrounded the fair city, heads together, immersed in deep conversation.  They pored over a scrap of parchment that was held between them, going over the finer details and committing the artist rendering of their subject to memory.

"Are you sure about this hunch?" Sih'la asked, folding the paper up and forcing it into a chest pocket on his leathers.  "If I were wanted by the grand companies for war profiteering I wouldn't walk through any of the cities where their headquarters are stationed."

Thiya scowled at him before turning and spitting on the ground.  "It's not a hunch.  A pair of eyes spotted him at the Scorpion Crossing out west.  He's been set up at the bar for over an hour.  He's not fully aware of what he's doing."

Sih'la's feline ears flapped in irritation as he rolled his eyes.  "A drunk.  All your heckling over the last two weeks for this?" A low whine vibrated from somewhere in his throat.

Thiya leaned back, straightening herself to her full height, lording her supreme roegadyn stature over the small miquo'te.  Sih'la's ears flattened against his head as he backed away, unsure of what to expect from his companion.  "All my _heckling_ ," she said, "is not over a mere drunkard.  This man is the key to my promotion within the Immortal Flames."

"I know, I know, Second Flame Lieutenant, you've told me this a hundred times by now!"

"I have worked day and night for nigh over a _year_ to come this far.  I catch this war profiteer and the rank is as good as mine."

"And I'm sure that once you've secured your position among the Flames they'll shower you with praise and declare you the queen of everything."

Thiya clenched her fists until her knuckles audibly cracked.  She knew that Sih'la heard it; his ears twitched at the sound and she could see his tail poof out.  She sighed in exasperation.  "Remind me why I brought you along."

"You're broke and couldn't afford to hire anyone else so you had to turn to your free company for support, despite rarely, if ever, bothering to help out around the cottage."

Sih'la's impetuousness and smug tone did little to calm Thiya's ire, which he was fully aware of.

"Remind me why I picked you to come along."

"I was the only one there at the time who remembered who you were."

"Remind me why you were the only one who volunteered."

Sih'la beamed with delight.  "Because you offered to give me a chub if I did."

Thiya cringed.  "You make it sound like something obscene when you say it.  It's only a _fish_."

"It's only the greatest dinner _ever_ to me!"

Thiya spat again and crossed her arms.  "Let's just go over the plan one more time."

" _Again_?"

"Yes, _again_."

Sih'la groaned and motioned down the lane towards the north.  "Target arrives through the Gate of the Sultana."  He spoke in a monotone as his other hand pointed in the opposite direction.  "He proceeds down the shopping strip to purchase some fancy pastry he likes to dry up the liquor and also meet a buyer of his shoddy goods, which is a plant from the Flames.  After the sale is made, the plant leaves, then he continues down the strip until he reaches the Gate of Thal, where a caravan currently awaits him on his way to wherever."

"If he gets to that caravan before we can catch him he's as good as lost," Thiya interjected.  "The man has the best chocobos money can buy; they're quick as lightning with twice as much moxy.  None of the grand companies have been able to find where he hides himself when he's having his associates selling poorly forged swords with falsified paperwork.  I only managed to convince him to make an appearance as a special request from a high rolling buyer; I won't get this opportunity again for a long time."

"I have a question."

"What?"

"Why don't they just, I don't know, _stop the carriage_?"

"There aren't enough men in the operation for that."

Sih'la threw up his hands.  "Why can't they put more people on this if he's such a hot ticket?"

In the edge of his vision he saw Thiya tap her toes against the cobblestone absentmindedly as she thought over her next words.  "Oh no," he said.  "You've got to be kidding me."

"Shut up.  Just _shut up_."

"This isn't on the record, is it?  You're out here on your own."

"Don't even."

"That plant is _your_ plant."  Sih'la was struggling to keep his voice quiet.

"The more people that know about this operation the bigger chance it will get back to the target!  You don't know who you can trust these days.  If I don't bring him in myself it's bye bye promotion."

"And if they find out you forced him back underground you can say hello to your fellow recruits when they demote you all the way back to the beginning."

"Which is why we can't screw this up."

"I'd better be getting two chubs for this," Sih'la said.  "So, you pursue him on foot while I climb the rooftops to cut him off at the gate."  He pulled out a dagger.  "I give him the old shanky shank, and then—"

Thiya's large hand shot out, smacking the blade out of his hand.  "I need a _live_ capture to get my promotion."

"But you said I would get to—"

"I _lied_."

Sih'la's jaw dropped and he staggered back.  "Why do you say these things when you know how much it hurts me?"

"I needed the extra hand!"

"I can't believe you—"

Thiya's eyes bulged out and her lips pursed so tightly in a thin line that they threatened to disappear from her face entirely.  Sih'la cowed away, grabbing his dagger from the ground.  "I'd better be getting _three_ chubs for this," he grumbled.  "You know how much I love to stab things."

"Stab the fish."

Thiya brushed her platinum hair from her eyes and scanned the crowd.  "There he is," she whispered.  "He's just passing under the gate."

Sih'la stole a glance at the figure, a tall elezen figure walking into view.  Strapped to his back was something long and wrapped in cloth.

A punch—or what Thiya would call a 'love tap'—on his shoulder broke his concentration.  "Ow, _what_?"

"What are you still doing here?" Thiya growled.  "Get going!"

"Alright, fine!"

He turned to leave before she grabbed him by the other shoulder.  "Do _not_.  Screw.  This.  Up for me.  _Or else_."

"I got it, I got it."  He broke free of her grasp and made for the alley.  The din of vendors advertising their wares slowly died away as he moved into the shadows.  He scanned the side of the building, looking for the place they had scoped out earlier.  Upon finding it, he made his ascent, scaling the wall and windows, shimmying from here to there, making his way to the top.

Within a couple moments Sih'la was observing the scene from high above.  He visualized himself clad in shadow, blending himself into his surroundings, just like his master taught him at the Dutiful Sisters of the Edelweiss.  He felt his pulse decrease to a low key thrum and his breath came in slow, steady streams as soft and quiet as the night breeze.  Looking down at his hands he saw next to nothing, just a nondescript form that, even though he knew it was his own body, he couldn't be bothered to place it.

He crouched low on the peaked roof, staying perfectly still.  He scanned the crowd before spotting the target at the culinary stand, licking the tips of his fingers before making his way further down the line, just as Thiya said he would.  The man spoke again to the merchant, who waved him off with a smile before he turned and swaggered down the street.  Sih'la pondered from his perch where Thiya's plant was, and what kind of gil she had to pay for their cooperation.  He was easier to pay, he just asked for food.  Granted, if he asked for money then he could afford to buy his own food all the time instead of laying around the free company cottage in hopes that someone would take pity on him or leave their food unattended.

The target approached an older man sitting against the wall.  Sih'la leaned forward in anticipation.  They talked, shook hands, laughed, and soon enough, the cloth package was removed from the elezen man's back and unwrapped, revealing a beautiful, shiny sword.  Sih'la's eyes widened at the sight.  The design and craftwork was beautiful to see, even from up here.  Surely something like that couldn't be trash, could it?

In his reverie Sih'la missed the first crackling sounds of the aether in the air, but he did catch sight of the flickering light above him.  He looked up, watching lights the size of fireflies materialise out of thin air, flitting through the night sky, tracing indecipherable patterns as more and more came together until finally, they formed a ring, a large living halo that hovered overhead.  From the center of it something blacker than night took form, bigger and bigger—

" _What_."

Until Sih'la realised that the mass wasn't growing but was actually falling, and the rapidly increasing size was the object getting closer and closer—

The impact of the warm and unbearably tough object to his skull knocked him out of the shadows and off balance.  He staggered back, feet slipping from the rooftop peak.  Sih'la panicked, scrambling to reach out for anything to catch his fall.  His fingers only clutched at air.  He grabbed for one of his daggers, stabbing away at the rooftop, hoping to provide some sort of hold, but each hit only bounced off with a _ching_!  Soon enough he no longer felt the scraping of stone underneath him; now it was replaced by open air.

"Oh boy—"

This was going to hurt.

The shock of the landing on his back, despite being stupidly lucky enough to land in a heap of garbage, knocked the wind of out Sih'la.  He clutched his chest with one hand, his backside with the other, his mind reeling with confused messages as to what one was supposed to do when everything hurt all over.  He pushed the garbage out of the way, struggling to turn over on to his hands and knees, the air coming in incredibly shallow gasps.

In his panic Sih'la forgot all about the lump that had, after knocking him senseless and last being seen rolling down the roof with him, decided it was high time to join him on the ground.  The roundish nature of the object—which now sported flailing appendages and was closer to resembling a small child—sped up the descent to the point where, when it did smash into Sih'la's stomach, the impact forced what little air he was able to hold on to.  His face turned a slight shade of blue before his vision blurred and his world turned black.


	3. Well Thal's balls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krystanth makes her arrival and focuses on the important thing: looks and cash.

Krystanth was still falling when she woke up.  Everything was dark around her as she opened her eyes, only the cool air rushing past her giving any indication that she was even awake.  She blinked once, twice, three times, trying to see something in the pitch black void around her.

_Now what?_ she wondered.  Clearly she had messed up her teleportation spell something fierce thanks to that big oaf, whoever he was.  She had wanted to port herself to Orgrimmar then grab a flight on the zeppelin to somewhere very far away.  Now she was stuck in some kind of teleporting limbo, with only the thought of an endless fall to accompany her.  Was there a bottom here?  Was there anything?  Was Krystanth even alive?

She threw out her arms, fanning herself out in an attempt to slow her descent.  From what she could tell if she was falling to her death, she wasn't falling very fast.  This plane didn't seem to have ordinary rules.  She twirled this way and that, letting herself glide side to side, or at least she thought she did.  It was dark enough that she couldn't tell if she was actually moving any direction other than down.

Krystanth shouted out; nothing in particular, just a way to check she could still make noise.  No echo followed her voice.

Finally, she tried to cast a spell.  Unfortunately even when she tried something basic, even if it was to create some kind of light source, all attempts failed her.  She was completely tapped out.  Krystanth couldn't understand it; even though she had technically been knocked out she should have gotten _something_ back while she was 'resting'.  If anything, she had lost what little she had left.  The air felt stale and oppressive; not a trace of magic in it.  Instead there was something else; something different, she couldn't quite place it.

A small light drifted up past her field of vision as she continued her descent.  Her eyes followed it above her, thinking it would be the last real thing she saw.  Her thought was misplaced; another light joined it, followed by two more, then a multitude that seemed to bubble up from nowhere.  Krystanth watched them appear from below her from nowhere.  What on earth was going on?  Was this it?  Was she about to make her exit?

A bright light exploded into existence from behind her.  Krystanth turned her body around, shielding her eyes from the light until they could adjust.  When she was able to see again her jaw dropped.

It was a giant diamond—no, a crystal, bigger than any jewel she had ever seen in her entire life.  Something from within shone forth, illuminating every uneven surface that suggested chaos but was somehow still beautiful.  Smaller bits and pieces of crystal orbited it like planets around the sun.

_—Hear._

The voice came from inside her mind, but it most definitely wasn't her own.  It wasn't near as pretty.

_—Hear.  Feel._

A beam of light shot out from the crystal, enveloping Krystanth.  It was blinding, but otherwise didn't hurt...at first.  Her muscles began to expand and contract and her bones felt like they were shifting around with her internal organs.  Her skin was stretching and contorting around her body, and a burning sensation permeated the flesh.  Even her hair hurt.

_—Hear.  Feel.  Think._

The giant crystal shone brighter and brighter.  She covered her eyes with her palms, pushing them harder into her face to block the light until it made her eyes hurt worse than the aura surrounding her did.  It was too much to handle.

_—Speak._

She screamed.

With that, the pain stopped.  The light vanished.  Krystanth was entrenched in complete darkness once more, but she was filled with such relief that the euphoria that permeated her body began to pull her into unconsciousness again.  However, something else began to happen.

An outside pressure pushed against her body.  It was nothing compared to the pain of earlier, in fact it was like she was being smothered by pillows.  This feeling was familiar, but not quite exact to what she had felt many times before.

She was coming out of the portal into a new location.  A location unlike any place she had been previously.

Before she could make sense of her new surroundings, however, she made impact.  Not with the ground, but with something softer.  Something squishier.  Something much louder.

The collision forced her eyes open, unable to take in everything at once.  There was an average sized person falling away from her.  There was a rooftop coming to meet her face.  There was rock dust in her mouth.  There was dizziness as she rolled down and off the building.  There was another squishy landing as she fell on top of this same person she had before.

She groaned as she rolled off his unconscious form into a heap of trash.  She struggled to stand up straight.  Everything felt so off, like suddenly she was no longer as top heavy as she used to be.  She looked down at herself and shrieked.

It was like she had regressed to a body of a twelve year old.  Like everything that was in her bosom was now in her posterior.  She grabbed herself, and shrieked again.  Where did these tiny hands come from?  And her skin!  What happened to her beautiful green skin?  She found her answer when she reached for her scalp, finding locks of green hair tied into two buns that rested atop her head.

Krystanth couldn't believe it, and yet it made perfect sense.  The giant crystal had _changed_ her.  How dare it?  She was perfect the way she was before.

"Why is this happening?" she said out loud.  She gasped.  Even her _voice_ was different.  "What did I do to deserve this?  _I'm such a nice person_!"

The person next to her began to stir, turning over to his side.  She twirled around, giving him a onceover.  He wasn't bad to look at, for a human, with his few scars, lean, trim fit, and tail.

A _tail_?

 This was no ordinary human.  She had never seen anything like it before.  It matched the hair on his head, and was long and thin like a cat's tail.  If this was a human something was very wrong.

Maybe the tail was a fake.  Krystanth reached out, grabbing the end of the tail.  She marvelled at the softness of the fur, stroking it with her fingertips.  The man's leg twitched in response.  Krystanth gave him an up and down again, this time spotting the feline ears hidden in his hair.  "By the gods," she muttered, before squealing, "That is _adorable_!"  Why, with this kind of genetic abnormality before her, if she took this man home she could make a bundle from the blind masses who wanted a quick escape from the ongoing warfare between Horde and Alliance...if she could find her way home.  She reflected on the path her tour would take, up and down one continent before taking the zeppelin to the next, all the shows she could put on.  "Krystanth and the Ferocious Feline!" it would be called.  Or maybe "Krystanth or the Fabulous Feline!"?  There would be dancing, music, top notch choreography.  He would jump through flaming hoops and tap dance and perform death defying feats.  She would be a star!  And all because this man had a tail...if it was a real tail.

She reached for her belt, pulling out a length of rope that she tied into a noose and slipped around his neck like a collar before she took a firm grip on the man's tail and gave it a hard yank.

With a yowl the man shot up off the ground, wrenching the tail from Krystanth's grasp.  She did, however, keep a firm grip on the leash, which nearly pulled him off of his feet again.  He reached for the leash but it had cinched itself too tight around his neck for him to pull it off.  "What in Thal's name are you doing?" he shouted at her, reaching for a dagger on his belt.

"Oh no you don't!"  Krystanth gave the leash a flick and twirled, coiling the length into her hands and dragging him down to her level so they were eye to eye.  " _You_ are going to make me millions and _I_ am not going to let you get away."

The cat man pulled back, the rope lifting her into the air before being torn from her grasp.  She somersaulted over him and reached out, grabbing him by the hair and landing on his back.  He grunted, spinning around and flailing his arms trying to grab her as she dodged to and fro.  Finally her grip slipped and she slid off his back into nearby trash, the end of the leash back in her hands.  The cat man made to bolt, but she pulled him back.  "And just where do you think you're going, buster?"

"I was in the middle of something here before you came out of the sky!"

"Well that's too bad, you're gonna have to come with me now."

He whirled around with daggers withdrawn, making her jump back and flick the rope out of the blade's path.  She held out a hand and concentrated on making a fireball.

Flame burst from her fingertips in an explosion that nearly blew off her entire hand, catching her completely off guard.  That was definitely not her intended spell.  The cat man staggered out of the way, dazzled by the powerful mini-blast.  She took the opportunity to wrap the rope twice more around her forearm and revaluate her spell.  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, absorbing the aether in the air.

The one breath almost choked her when she realised how much aether there was permeating the air.  At least two, maybe three times as much as she felt when she was home.  Where was this place and how could they function with such plentiful magic supply?

The cat man finished rubbing his eyes and gave his head a shake.  "Listen," he said.  He carefully sidestepped around Krystanth, his eyes trained on her fingers.  "Clearly we got off on the wrong foot here but I _really_ have to get out of here now—"

"Not without me you're not."

"I don't think you understand what you just stepped into here.  I'm in the middle of an investigation."

"And you're going to pull out early and come home with me."  She focused again, though this time trying not to put too much force behind her magic.  Flames licked from her palms, ready to lash out at the non-compliant kitty.

The cat man opened his mouth to say more but an echoing roar cut him off.  "Uh oh," he moaned under his breath.  " _Now_ I'm in for it."

For a moment Krystanth was sure the Tauren that had chased her earlier had found out where she was and had begun the chase again, but instead of a hulking cow appearing at the end of the alley, there was instead a very tall burly woman with heaving, hulking shoulders.

The tiniest high pitched whine emerged from the cat man's throat.

"Mai you moron, where were you?" the figure shouted as they approached with slow, deliberate steps.  Krystanth noticed that the man's tail poofed out more and more with each step the person took.  "You had _one_ job and you blew it!  By the gods, what were you thinking?  I oughta—"

The figure stopped mid-sentence, finally taking in the scene before them, mainly Mai with his hands around a noose on his neck and tiny Krystanth holding the end of it in one hand and a ball of fire in the other.  Krystanth held it up as high as she could, illuminating the person's face to reveal a woman with such a mixed look of utter disgust and seething rage on her face that she felt all the hair on her body stand on end.

She had made a huge mistake.

"What the _hell_ is this?" the woman shouted.

The cat man stammered for a few seconds, twitching this way and that before finally pointing at Krystanth and yelling " _She_ did it!"

"Wha—?  No!"  Krystanth dropped the end of the rope, extinguished her flame and tucked her hands behind her back, trying to look innocent in the debacle.  "H-he asked me to!"

For a brief moment it appeared as though the woman believed her, her incredulous gaze shifting to the cat man.  A smile played across her lips.

The woman's glare shot back to her before she reared back.  "Lying imp!" she shouted, launching herself at Krystanth.  The cat man leapt out of her path.  Krystanth covered her face and screamed, the sound cut off short by a sudden pain from the impact of the woman's fist into her gut.  She felt her center of gravity shifting as she was launched into the air.  She looked down and saw the woman stepping back and rearing back her right leg.

_I'm gonna die,_ she screamed in her mind as she reached the apex of her flight and began to fall back down again.  She saw the woman's leg come forth, hitting her in the stomach once more and sending her spiralling into the air, soaring higher and higher toward the alley wall, above the wall, _over the wall_.  She continued to climb in altitude, giving her a bird's eye view of the city, and the encroaching desert all around it as she continued to fly through the air over a bazaar and finally, the city's protective walls toward the sand and stone below.


End file.
